Issue #202 March 15, 2007 Blowhard Barton v. the Big Three Josh Dorner, RAW Contributor I'd like to think this week's most outrageous moment was when I was denied a seat at yesterday's hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee -- a hearing where the heads of the UAW, Toyota, GM, Ford, and Chrysler were called before the panel to discuss fuel economy and global warming. Two developments in the hearing, however, easily outshone any personal offence I may have suffered. First, all five witnesses agreed -- explicitly -- to support nationwide carbon limits, including limits on tailpipe emissions from their own products. Before you get too excited…GM CEO Rick Wagoner himself reminded the panel that "the devil's in the details" and they'd have to reserve their final judgment on the matter until the details are sketched out. For a moment I thought the Earth had stopped turning and wondered aloud if hell had indeed frozen over, as I found myself in complete agreement with Wagoner. (For details on the Sierra Club's position on economy-wide carbon caps and the like, check out Carl Pope's blog.) In an interesting turnabout, Inhofe-like Rep. Joe Barton was none too pleased with the automakers. After asking a trick question -- identified by the telltale "this is not a trick question" -- which was met with quizzical looks and general eye-blinking bafflement from the witnesses, he engaged in more puffery, including lecturing the automakers to make sure they "really understood" the implications of agreeing on the need for a carbon cap. What really remained unclear what was whether Barton really understands that, unlike him, fully 85 percent of Americans believe global warming is an important or critical threat. Barton is probably just still crabby because when Americans voted for a new direction on energy in last year's elections, they voted him right out of his committee chairmanship.

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